NaNoWriMo magic

Only a week until the first of November; one week to get my act together on what I’m going to write. I’m listening to a playlist right now, making sure the flow is correct. This will be my seventh NaNo, many books under the bridge. If not for National Novel Writing Month, I wouldn’t be typing this post, wouldn’t be sitting at my computer this day.

Maybe it seems a little silly for me to wax so enthusiastically about NaNo. But I’ll be honest; if not for that kick in the pants, my noveling dreams would still be just that, musings in my head. But I participated, won, kept writing. And I’ll be writing until the day I can’t.

But what is it about one month, one challenge, that stirs my noveling blood? I’ve been thinking about that, as October winds down. This month isn’t just about baseball (although my beloved SF Giants are in The World Series which starts tonight, heh heh heh…); October is when I plot the next book, when I jump into the forums, when I connect with other writers. Aha! Writing is so solitary, but NaNo offers an open window, hoots and shouts and sometimes groans of others who like me want to create. Varied reasons and goals, but 50,000 words calls to us all. Some will make it, some won’t. Some will come back next year, but not all. Some will write only in November, some will continue throughout the year. NaNo is what each person makes of it, but the underlying foundation is telling a story.

I’ve got a story only I can share.

Well, I have a few. I’ll be trying two novels this month; the plan is for concurrent writing, but we’ll see. Mostly I want to immerse myself in the mystery and joy that is writing alongside thousands of others. Thousands of people participate in NaNo, dude! That’s the other amazing fact; not just a handful, or a couple hundred. Try a couple hundred THOUSAND! Now that’s some word counts, that’s some stories. That’s a huge boost when I think about it; others like me, wanting to regale via language some part of the soul. I write because it’s in my soul to do so. NaNo gave me the opportunity, the guide. All I needed was a shove in the right direction.